On the succeeding morning, Captain Ballard returned to Belle Point, and we resumed our journey, accompanied by one of the sons of our landlord, who undertook to guide us on our way, until we should fall in with a path which we might continue to follow. We passed through a hilly country, crossing two creeks, heretofore called the Middle and Lower Vache Grasse. At the distance of four or five miles from the Arkansa, on each side, the country is broken and mountainous, several of the summits rising to an elevation of near two thousand feet above the surface of the water. Several trees which stood near our path had been in part stripped of their bark, and the naked trunks were marked with rude figures, representing horses, men, deer, dogs, &c. These imperfect paintings, done with charcoal, and sometimes touched with a little vermilion, appeared to be historic records, designed to perpetuate, or at least to communicate the account of some exploit in hunting, a journey, or some similar event. We have already remarked, that this method of communication is sufficiently understood by the Indians, to be made the vehicle of important intelligence. A little before sunset we arrived at a settlement on the stream, called Short Mountain Bayou. The little {127} cabin we found occupied by two soldiers belonging to the garrison, who were on their return from the settlement at Cadron, whither they had been sent with letters on our arrival at Fort Smith, Cadron being the nearest post-town. We had expected letters from our friends by the return of the express, but were disappointed.[7] The soldiers informed us, that the house in which they had quartered themselves for the night, had been for a week or two deserted, since its proprietor had died, and his wife, who was sick, had been removed to the nearest settlement. The place is called the Short Mountain Settlement,[8] from a high ridge of sandstone, a little to the north-west, rising in the form of a parallelogram to an elevation of about twelve hundred feet.[9] Its sides are abrupt, and in many places, particularly towards the summit, perpendicular. The summit is broad and nearly tabular, being covered with small trees, among which the red cedar, or some other ever-green tree, predominates. The plantation is somewhat elevated on a rocky eminence, at a little distance from the creek, but it is surrounded on all sides, save one, by the heavily wooded low grounds, in which we are to look for the causes whose operation have made it so soon desolate. Short Mountain Bayou, if we may judge from the depth and width of its channel, and the extent of its low grounds, is a large stream, or rather one which drains an extensive surface, but at this time it exhibited a succession of green and stagnant pools, connected by a little brook, almost without any perceptible current. On the surface of these pools, we saw the floating leaves of the nymphæa kalmiana, some utricularias, and other aquatic plants.